About to be user question

[alejo]

Hi,
I´m thinking on buyin SAI, but I have a question before. Is the base game (not with the expansions) a linked series of scenarios, or do I have the chance to decide where, when and how to use/manage the ships of my "armada"? I take as given that the outcome of each battle affects the progress of the campaign right?

Thank you very much

Alejo

[randomizer]

The base game comes with a ship-design utility, a random but configurable battle generator and a scenario editor along with over thirty scenarios dating from 1912 to 1919. None of the stock scenarios are linked in any way. The battle generators are also purely tactical but new combinations of forces can be easily created with a text editor.

The SAI campaign DLC adds North Sea and Baltic campaigns and writing new campaigns is certainly possible although doing so involves considerable effort. Actions in the campaign are linked; player-controlled ships that are sunk remain sunk, ships may be lost or damaged due to enemy action or accident and along with scheduled refits, defects might appear that force you to have a ship go into dock at a critical time. As importantly, the AI opponent operates under the same set of rules regarding potential attrition damage and repair constraints.

The campaign rolls along in weekly or monthly turns (selected at the start and changeable as it unfolds) and there may or may not be actions depending upon what the AI is doing and whether there is or is not any contact between forces at sea. You may be given objectives worth Victory Points (most points will be awarded for ship losses) and you can sortie pretty much as you see fit, within the constraints placed on the necessity of spending Operations Points to send your ships to sea. These points are allocated every turn and can be accumulated although if you accumulate too many, some may be lost through wastage. If you spot enemy forces with surface ships or the AI controlled air patrols and friendly submarines you may activate forces still in port at 50% operations points costs.

Hope this helps.

[alejo]

Thank you Cristopher for your detailed answer. So, I should get both, SAI base and the first expansion. I´ll have a conversation with my pillow tonight

[alejo]

Ok, it was not my pillow but the many reviews with positive comments which finally convinced me, so I got both SAI and the Campaign Expansion.

I have a couple of old big books with +700 pages about naval warfare 1900 onwards and must say SAI is just like seeing those fascinating minimalistic maps. I absolutely love the style how your software portrays the battles and the details that comes wiht every window.

I´d like to congratulate the team behind SAI and of course wish they keep making it even better. Surely many asked for a ww2 expansion, so I´ll go a little bit farther... What about the Age of Sail? A top view of a Ship of the Line, dealing with the wind while looking for an adventageous position, before exchanging broadside fire. I know I have no chance, but hey, always would like to become Richard Bolitho (or Horatio Hornblower or Jack Aubrey).

Thank you very much for your work on this topic.

Alejandro

[williammiller]

On behalf of Fredrik (the SAI & RtW designer) and the NWS team I do thank you for your kind words, we appreciate them!